For ten years he was involved in Cincinnati politics serving on the City Council and spending two terms as the Mayor of Cincinnati. For the next 10 years Jerry Springer was the main news anchor on the 5:30, 6:00 and 11:00 broadcasts for the NBC affiliate of Cincinnati.

MultiMedia, the producers of Donahue and Sally Jesse Raphael, owned the affiliate and decided to do another stand-up talk show. Jerry didn't try out, audition, or win a talent search. It was basically another assignment for the multi-faceted Springer.

We met with Jerry Springer at Fumatore Cigar Club on North Halsted just prior to his return to jolly old England and its' famous Dunhill cigar rooms.

Q: How long did you actually practice law?
A: Oh, off and on about 7 years, 8 years, because I was doing it when I was still in politics.
Q: What's your take on our current political climate?
A: I'm more optimistic than I was a year ago. I'm a liberal Democrat and obviously it looked like I was a minority of one in America. I'm a minority because I like Bill Clinton.
Q: Have you met Bill Clinton?
A: Just once. But, I mean I like him as a President. So, I'm feeling a little more optimistic now. I was concerned that we were ready to shut the door on the idea of America. That we had become very inner directed. What's best for me is the only consideration, you know, who's going to lower my taxes, who's going to make my life better. The heck with everybody else! It seemed to be a real mean spirited politics.
Q: Can I do a merge question now and merge politics into talk shows. Recently talk shows have taken heat from politics. In your opinion should government be involved in media and in television and to what extent?
A: You mean other than organizing the air waves so that you don't have mumbled signals. This is America and we have to take very seriously the idea that people are allowed to believe what they want, read what they want, say what they want, and think what they want.
That's why itıs the very first amendment to the Constitution. And that is what separates America from other societies. We can't lose track of that. That's more important than whatever is on the talk show. It's more important than having television! It's having the first amendment. We can do without television in America. We can't do without freedom of speech.
Q: Were you involved in the hearings?
A: There have been no hearings yet. There have been various groups holding conferences. There was a conference in New York I showed up at last November I guess it was, and there was another seminar. There was a meeting two weeks ago with the President but, that didn't relate to talk shows. That related to violence on prime time television and the "v" chip.
Q: So, isn't that the same issue?
A: Well it's on the border of the same issue. I don't so much oppose the "v" chip because I don't mind people knowing what they're about to see, or, having to know so that they can make judgment decisions for their kids. That's fine. I believe you ought to be a good parent. I just don't believe that one adult could tell another adult what's allowed to be read, or watched, or seen on a program.
Q: I get very offended personally as a parent with language on television. I've got two little kids and I hear the word bitch, dammit and many more vile words on television, not to mention other topics that I just donıt feel should be on prime time family entertainment. What's your take?
A: Mostly with major words that we don't like, we bleep out. But, the culture is changing and words which two generations ago we thought were foul have now become very much a part of the language and my guess is that 20 or 30 years from now words that we consider vulgar today won't be vulgar then. In other words, the language is always a growing process of change in process. In the beginning it is a shock value. Now you would not be offended if I said 'what the hell is going on here' but, the truth is you would be kicked out of your church if you said that 20 years ago. So, it's important to recognize that with language, even though we bleep out now what is offensive, we have to realize it to be a fluid thing. That we don't grow up being worse people because we heard a bad word.
Q: One more question about it and then we'll get on to cigars... how much heat do you take for topics that you get into.
A: Well, we get heat from people who don't like it, we get support from people who do.
So, everyone knows that if you go into the public arena you open yourself up to criticism as well as praise, and that's OK. I think itıs absolutely fair and fine to criticize my show. It is unthinkable to say, because you don't like it, it can't be on. That's the difference.
I may not like watching the soap opera. I may not like watching opera, or, watching Crossfire! They scream too much at each other and they're too mean spirited on that show. But, that doesn't mean that you can take it off the air. You know, Pat Buchanan has a right to be on the air, I mean you may think heıs full of it, but, he has a right to be on. Rush Limbaugh, a cigar lover. I may disagree with what he says but, he has the right to be on. I would never sign a petition to say Rush Limbaugh should be taken off the air. I'd be hypocritical. You cannot salute the American flag, and say you love this country, and then in the next breath say I don't believe that person should be able to be on the airwaves.
Q: Cigars. We have got to get into cigars.
A: Yeah - my first experience with cigars was in college. I had a roommate thirty years ago whose father was in the cigar business. That was my first introduction to cigars and I really enjoyed them. But then I just kind of dropped it. I was never much of a smoker of any sort until a few years ago I started smoking cigars again. I do look forward to smoking a great cigar. I smoke three or four a week now. When I go out at night for a nice dinner I want to know in advance that I have a cigar to look forward to after eating and that I can smoke it in peace.
Q: Any favorites?
A: I smoke mostly Ashtons or Davidoffs, but, at this point if someone gives me a cigar and says,"try this, it's great", I have to give it a try. Now I'm in the process of saving labels, so if I find something new, the next time I go out I'll get those. I'm not such a connoisseur that I won't say I won't have this, I won't have that, but I've got a humidor now so, I'm into the whole bit.
Q: Are there any cigar and politics, or, favorite back room cigar stories that you could share with our readers? A: The best story I heard was in 1962. One evening in Washington, D.C., around 8:00 o'clock at night, President John Kennedy called in Pierre Salinger, his Press Secretary, and said, "I want you to go to every tobacco store in town. Here in D.C., and across the river in Alexandria, VA and buy up every Cuban cigar you can get." Salinger did what he was told because, he wasn't privy to what was going on. He bought up 250 - 300 cigars for Kennedy and brought them back. The next day Kennedy declared the embargo on Cuba. So thatıs the power of the Presidency.

The Jerry Springer Show is in its fifth year. Locally it may be seen at 9:00 a.m. and again at 1:00 o'clock in the afternoon on WMAQ TV Channel 5.